With the increasing adoption of fuel injector engines, there has arisen the need for cleaning the flow path of fuel injectors, and in particular, the fuel injector nozzles themselves.
Combustion projects, carbon-silicone deposits, clog the extremely small injector passages of injectors in the course of use.
The necessity of the cleaning process is due to the formation of clogging deposits which have harmful fuel feed effects. For example, such deposits can change the fuel spray pattern injected into the airstream enroute to a cylinder. This causes power loss, poor acceleration and surging, which is a condition that can cause accidents.
Other effects are rough idling and hesitation or sudden slowdown. Numerous other harmful effects are known.
For instance, certain harmful effects on the fuel intake system comprising valves and ports affect car performance and can cause parts damage.
Basically, such cleaning of a fuel injection system involves a combustible cleaning fluid which is pressure fed to the fuel injector system in substitution for the regular fuel supply. Thus, the engine runs on the cleaning fluid. Various channels and passages are then cleaned by a fuel mixture of air with the cleaning fluid.
To the best of my knowledge, all present commercial methods and apparatus for cleaning fuel injector systems usually have a mechanic attend the engine compartment during injector cleaning. This exposes the mechanic to contact with engine components having very high temperatures and also to injury due to rotating parts. Such exposure is risked, in the event the engine being in operation during the cleaning process, wherein throttle adjustment is needed to correct irregular running.
Although, standing at the engine for adjusting the throttle is optional with sitting in the vehicle, for adjustment to overcome tentative irregularity of the engine by gas pedal operation, actually the hood need not be lifted at all in the use of the present invention. All fuel line disconnects and connects are made under the car and the inevitable drips fall on the ground, not on the engine.
Further, the versatility of prior systems known to me is limited, in that they have utility only for vehicles where the hookup for the cleaning apparatus is under the hood.
Also, some vehicles have a single injector spraying into a common intake manifold for mixing with fuel spray.
With one exception, to the best of my knowledge, all conventional methods disable, i.e., disconnect the fuel pump during the cleaning process. This brings in a complication in locating a disabling point and possible damage to car components for access and to the pump connector plug which may fail to make a good contact on reconnection.
This single exception is where the fuel pump is kept running but the output shunted back to the fuel tank by connections made under the car hood.
However, no connections involve filter removal which requires a separate step with new replacement after the cleaning process instead of being part of the cleaning process.
Also, shunting the fuel pump output back to the fuel tank under the hood is done after the engine is heated to operating temperature. Therefore, the mechanic must risk burns from the engine in making the hook-up.
There are other disadvantages to conventional methods. For example, where fuel line disconnects and connects have to be made under car hood there is usually some fuel which drips on the warmed up engine. The engine being necessarily warmed to normal temperature at this time, prior to the cleaning process, such drips can be dangerous and could start a fire. Also, fuel can drip onto painted surfaces, such as fenders of a vehicle and cause damage.